Trump Administration Sued For Delaying Obama-Era Greenhouse Gas Rule
WASHINGTON — A group of environmental organizations has filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration for delaying an Obama-era rule that regulates the release of methane from drilling operations on federal and tribal land.
Delaying compliance has harmed the public because it has allowed for excessive air pollution in addition to reducing royalty payments for states, tribes and local governments, nonprofit Earthjustice and other groups argue in the complaint they filed Monday in U.S. District Court in California.
“Trump and his administration cannot blatantly ignore the law just to benefit polluters at the expense of everyone else,” Earthjustice attorney Robin Cooley said in a statement. “Compliance with public health rules cannot be indefinitely delayed while the Trump Administration and bad actors within the industry try to undo them.”
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management finalized the rule in the final months of Barack Obama’s presidency. It updated 30-year-old regulations and limited the amount of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, that can be vented, burned and wasted from oil and gas operations on federal and Native American lands.
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